The 'Trump' Card

Back in WW2, The Imperial Japanese Army was the best.  They had the best discipline, training, dedication; they were Zealots.  They were as good as the SS in this regard and they knew the terrain which they were fighting in.  What was greater than this army's strength was the estimation of its own strength in the wake of early field success.  This was referred to as 'Winner's disease'.  The American Pacific forces had to fight just a little bit more clever while continuing to be thought of as inferior by the Jap forces.  One example of this was the use of the M1 Garand Standard US rifle semi-auto rifle of the period.  The rifle was loaded via Clip (not mag).  When the last bullet from a clip was fired, the clip would be ejected with an audible 'Ping'.  The Japanese knew that this was the time to pop up and strike as the user of the rifle would have to reload.  Smart.  Except even smarter was the fact that US servicemen would have empty clips that they would throw against rocks to create the same sound and get the Japs to poke their heads up.  Under estimating the opponent had been the Japanese' greatest weak point. 

Well suppose we aren't talking about the quality of troops in the jungle but the estimation of an entire nation of itself.  I've rarely met anyone from the US who doesn't believe themselves to be superior to everyone else.  From the dumbest cowboy to the sleaziest drug dealer, everyone in the US believes themselves to be just better than everyone else for being born American.  Even the name 'America' is egocentric.  'America' is a collective name for the continents of North and South America.  When I'm in the US, I like to tell them that I'm 'American'.  I was born in Canada...that's in North America...therefore I'm an 'American'...and watch the sour faces fly.  How about the M1 Garand rifle (in the above paragraph) which that pompous asshole George Patton called "The greatest battlefield implement ever devised by man" was actually made by a Canadian.  But, you see, at the time he had invented it, he had become a US citizen.  I had this debate with someone online about this.  Becoming a US citizen is treated like some form of Baptism where you wash all the impurities away of your former life from an inferior nation.  I guess only US citizens are allowed to go to heaven while the rest of us go to Ecuador. 

I love American reality TV (yeah I use the term).   Except for the fact that there are other pedals on the floor beside the gas (as in 'How much scripting is too much'), I usually have a good time.  Take an individual with 5 parts mouth and the other 5 parts have to be shared by the rest of the senses as well as the brain...and you have great drama.  I'm not anti-American.  Many Americans I look up to include John F Kennedy, Buzz Aldren, Neil Armstrong and Barack Obama.  There are also those I have met personally that are superior people.  The problem doesn't come from a human being earning accolades on his own merits but from those who feel that they are superior by being linked to what they feel is a superior group.  The US arrogance in this belief is so prevalent that travelers can expect a little something extra when dining out in a foreign country.  I don't think that is right.  Not all US citizens believe themselves to be superior.  Most do, however, even just a little.

I loved the Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice (though I thought the second was a little too contrived).  Donald Trump was the main man.  He was the boss.  He raised the bar and said 'Jump' and you had better jump.  One has to estimate what motivates a man to do what he does.  Does Donald Trump want the power of sitting in the big chair?  Does Donald Trump want to promote initiatives that will kick up American industry and turn the US into an economic power house? I can believe both of those.  As a Canadian, I'm worried that Donald will shut down NAFTA and pooch other countries for American gain.  I'm sure he knows about business but I'm not sure he knows the first thing about foreign relations other than telling everyone else 'It's my way or the highway'.  This won't fly for other countries that require plenty more finesse.  Look at the mess George Bush made.  Barack Obama turned it all around in 6 years and got the US back on track.  I'm not saying that Mr. Trump won't do what he can for US interests but are the more subtle qualities of being a president within his aptitude and skill set?  Or, like many Americans, is he over estimating his own abilities.  Personally, I believe Mr. Trump is an over compensating egotist.  How many buildings have his name on them?  He is a good man but, and I'm sorry to say this, I think he is a little broken.  As much as I would love the novelty of having the 'Boss' in 'The Apprentice' be President of the US... we all must live in the real world and the buttons he has at his finger tips would be very real.  The bridges that he may burn to flex his Power muscle against other counties may have lasting consequences.  Things are really tenuous right now with the world politics.  We've got that idiot Kim Jong-Un doing stupid shit.  That idiot Vladimir Putin who worships that old psychopath Stalin and wants to start WW3.  ISIS is running around killing, maiming and enslaving people for what is supposed to be a peaceful religion.  Do we really need another cowboy on the world stage? 
 
...and will we know the difference between someone who can make decisions quickly...and someone who those decisions well.  I just hope it's not a lesson we can't come back from.

Remember when 'Googie' ruled the world?

Googie (not GOOGLE), Populuxe or 'Atomic Mid-Century Modern'  This was the style of the day.  You: The young professional with something to say reached for your phone...none of those stock model rotary phones for you

You phoned up your buddies...got into your car

...and drove down the road, pick up your gal

and go catch a movie

This form of art was everywhere mixed in with what came before and other passions including the entire 'Cowboy' genre

It was on our cereal boxes.   It was on our toys.  Googie, with its bold sweeping lines and colors represented everything that we were as a society.  Bold, Vibrant and unapologetically ourselves.  Technology was going to elevate with elegance and we were all going to use that knowledge to discover new and wonderful things.  Resolve strife, hunger and religious differences.  We were all going to march into the future knowing what was right and what was wrong and be back in time with our jetpacks for dinner.  We all haven't really realized what we lost with this dream.   Some would say we 'woke up'.  I say the 'Dream' is more like a blueprint.  Our current 'Blueprint' is without hope.  Nothing is ever as easy as the 'Black and White' mentality of the era suggested.  It is a nice belief but it is the product of lazy, convenient thinking.  Society will always reflect the motivation of its collective people.  I say steer the motivation toward making a better world.  If people want to own something, I'd say let them own the incredible nobility of THAT cause.  Not to mention passing that legacy onto their kids.  I want a world with hope.  I want the world to have a Utopian future...as reflected in Googie.

Characterization in games

I've always wondered why some games left me with a much richer experience regardless of how the mechanics functioned.  Specifically; "why did playing Fallout 3 feel like such an empty experience while Fallout New Vegas left me with a much richer feeling?".  

Somewhere into playing Fallout 4...building this...building that... and going somewhere and shooting things I realized one thing: "I'm bored".   Why am I shooting things?  The usual excuse of "Because they are shooting at me" just seems empty of meaning.  I don't feel invested...I don't feel motivated to helping this person or that...why not!?

So I ended up pulling out an old favorite "Bully".   This is just a stupid little fun game that was ported over from the consoles to PC.  The targeting sucks.  There are too few buttons doing too many things.  However, the game was fun.  It was like someone telling a joke with a straight face the whole way through...so you don't take it for anything more than it is.  Most of the students are stereotypes with characterization that are very simplistic.  The main protagonist and antagonist, however, were extremely real right down to their body language, voice influctions, gestures, posture and what they would say...everything.  You sat there going "I get who this person is;  I must know them from somewhere because what they are doing and how they are doing it seems so right". 

Suddenly it hit me:  I am not engaged in this game (Fallout 3 and 4) because the characters in this game do not really engage with the player.

Case in point:  this is your father's reaction to you intentionally nuking an entire town in Fallout 3 Liam phoning it in   The point is: the more you are exposed to non-engaged characters, the less invested you are going to be.  There is, however, the 'Minecraft' proviso:  You can draw any picture you want on a blank slate.  'Blank' and 'Bland', however, mean two different things.

Thinking about it, I believe the game that had the most amount of well defined characters was Far Cry 3.  That is characters that had face and body language, Tone, intensity of voice, proper wording for their character...basically everything that makes a computer character more human.  It is fair to state, however, that FC3 did use plenty of cut-scenes to convey this character...but that is also to its credit - the characters were given that much respect to be portrayed in cut-scenes.   Far Cry 4 also had cut scenes to portray its characters as well - not that it really mattered.  Most of the FC4 characters were unbelievable; I've seen children's cartoon characters with more dimensions.  It disturbs me this trend toward unrealism in characters.  Seriously, game creators,  if you are going to get your children to make a stick character in crayon on the canvas then just leave it blank...and call it 'Minecraft'.  Microsoft picked up Minecraft for 2.5 Billion from Mojang.  Missing the point completely, they intend to add a set story (/facepalm).  This is the continuing saga of the large corporation picking up a sweet product and pooching it so hard that the pooch needs to apply soothing gel and antibiotic cream.  Back to my original point:  Using words is just one of the ways we, as people, communicate.  Face, body language, vocal influctions are the ways which are usually overlooked...especially by those who are not used to a lot of face to face interactions...which, unfortunately, is the new trend.  The thing is...I can't feel as invested rescuing an animatronic mannequin as I would a thinking, feeling human being.  Funny about that.